Automatic contact distributors (ACDs) are generally known. Such systems are typically used by organizations to process contacts with clients of the organization. Typically, contacts with clients are directed to one or more communication system ports (e.g., telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc.) and distributed to agents based upon some criteria (e.g., agent idle time).
In general, ACDs are used to process both inbound or outbound contacts. Typically, a controller monitors a workload of its agents. Where a workload of received contacts fall below some threshold value, the controller may begin to initiate outbound contacts.
In addition to placing and distributing contacts, an ACD may also identify and display documents on agent terminals as an aid to processing the contacts. In the case of incoming contacts, the contacts may be received along with ancillary information (e.g., e-mail source and destination URLs, dialed number identification service (DNIS), automatic number identification (ANI) information, etc.). Source and destination information may be used to identify a caller and purpose of the contact before or at the same instant as the contact is delivered to the ACD. The controller of the ACD may use the source information to retrieve and display client records on a terminal of the agent selected to handle the contact at the same instant that the contact is delivered to the agent.
While automatic contact distributors work relatively well, they are not particularly well suited for distributing calls among ACDs, especially if they are of different types. Accordingly, a need exists for a better method of handling such calls.